Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
which these functions were exercised was the agglomeration of beliefs and practices that
made up what came to be known as
shintō,
the “way of the gods.” Its gods included great
deitiesresponsibleforthecreationoftheworldandofJapaninparticular,rulingsky,earth,
and the underworld; there were lesser deities, protectors of families and of groups in vil-
lages and towns, spirits inhabiting trees and stones, and living in households looking after
kitchensandprivies,godspresidingovertheprosperityoffarmersandtraders,helpingwith
crafts, or protecting associations of merchants. Although the great gods, when they took
partintheeventsrecordedinthemyths,actedmoreorlesslikemenandwomen,theywere
not depicted in human shape, and, like the humbler spirits, were an invisible presence in a
sacred area, marked by a rice-straw rope round a tree or stone or an enclosure. The
shintō
shrinewasessentiallysuchaninhabitation,withaseriesofgateways;ordinarypeoplewent
to pray at the outermost gate, with the inner ones being accessible only to privileged per-
sons. The great tombs of ancient Emperors, and the funerary mound of Meiji, are basically
the same: common folk had to worship from afar, but members of the Imperial family and
the Household Department could penetrate further.
Approachtothesanctuarycouldbemadeonlyafterpurification:hand-washing,mouth-
rinsing, or ritual purification performed by a priest waving paper streamers over the wor-
shipper's head. Priests lived at the larger shrines. In a normal-sized village or subdivision
of a town, this would be a part-time occupation, but headquarters of provincial or national
cults had a considerable number of full-time functionaries.
In much earlier times there had been a female priesthood, whose function had been the
mediumistic one of establishing contact between the present world and that of the dead. In
the film
Rashomon,
the spirit of the murdered man gave his version of the crime that the
film depicts through a female priest. By the time of the Tokugawas such of those that still
survived had sunk to the level of prostitutes and village wise-women. There were some fe-
male inhabitants of shrines that took part in shrine dances, but in general women played
only a small role in the priesthood. Priests did, however, marry, and normally son suc-
ceeded father in a shrine that, with its accompanying land, was virtually the private prop-
erty of the incumbent, although control was exercised on both the
shintō
and the Buddhist
priest-hoods by an official of the government.
The duties of the
shintō
priesthood were to act as intermediaries between the people
and the god. They received offerings, recited praises and gave, or organized, dramatic rep-
resentations of the myths on certain festival days. There was a great deal of administration
to be done—from the giving of amulets and protective inscriptions in return for offerings,
to the management of estates, and, in a great shrine like Ise or Miyajima, pilgrims to be
looked after. Subsidiary to the priesthood were the agents of the great shrines. They have
already been mentioned as arranging pilgrimages for farmers, giving them a sort of inclus-
ive tour. They did the same for towns-folk and they also were prepared to allow people to
